Friday, March 19, 2010

Some people know, most don't, but I was the Admin for the Etsy Front Pagers Flickr group. A few weeks ago, I received an email telling me that some of my images were against the Flickr Terms of Service and that I needed to remove any urls or sales lingo from them. I had no idea what they were talking about, because they were only screenshots and nothing more. I asked them to clarify and never received a response. A few days later, I got another email asking me to remove the urls etc that were against the TOS and again, I wrote back asking them to tell me which images, because I had no idea what they were talking about.

Well, today, I went to log in and *poof* everything was gone; the account, the Flickr group and all images. Am I pissed?! You'd better believe it! There were over 13,000 images in that group. There is no excuse for what the Flickr staff did. Absolutely ridiculous! Who the Hell says you need to fix this and when asked "what?" they turn around and delete everything? OMG, I am so incredibly livid right now.

What does this mean? It means someone reported the Front Pagers as not being in compliance with the TOS so Flickr sent warnings but rather than follow up, they just deleted the account. Not sure who would do this (I have a small idea), but karma's a bitch, and may it bite you in the ass like a pitbull with rabies.

All the group was ever supposed to be was a way for people to find themselves on the front page. I thought this was a good thing. I know I've missed being on the front page and I know how important it is to have a screenshot to save of your 15 minutes of glory. This feels like a slap in the face. All of the hardwork over the past year and a half is completely gone. I love the Etsy community and I'm so happy that I was able to help them out. Just know that it wasn't deleted on my part and I'm so sorry that someone had to ruin it for everyone else.

Thanks for the support and best of luck to you in your sales and the future!

Oh My Gosh that is horrible! I am so sorry! There HAS to be something that can be done so that Flickr has to say they are sorry. I don't know what, but if I figure it out, I'll let you know. UGH!!!<>Stephanie

Sooo sorry this happened. What a sham. I always checked it out. I wonder, though, that if you have kinda like a petition if they'd put it back up... if it's in their database. doubt it. sorry again! lame.

Amazing incompetence on Flickr's part. The Front Pagers was exactly the kind of traffic and subscriber building group sites like Flickr need to survive. If anything they should be offering you free upgrades to keep you. Talk about slitting their own throats.

Oh my, I am heartbroken for you!!! Your work was AWESOME and was a huge service to all us Etsy sellers...what a farce!!!maybe you should just start up again. It seems it takes them 1.5 years to notice anything!

I am so friggin tired of the cowards that hide behind anonymous to do their dirt. Hey cowards, if you think you are so right how about putting your name to all the crap you do. Wheather here, or on Etsy or on anonymous blogs You are a bunch of low life cowards. Janice

Oh no! All that work! Why in the world would someone do that when all you were doing was providing a wonderfully helpful service to all of us? Wow. The vindictiveness is disheartening. Those types must just have rotting souls. I'll miss this group. Loved stopping in there. Sorry all your hard work was wiped out. :(

Sorry this happened to you. I used to love perusing your site and miss it. Flickr has a reputation for deleting accounts without warning and/or vague reasons. They should at least have answered your queries BEFORE deleting.

Damn, this is really unfortunate! Perhaps it would help if we all wrote to flickr expressing our dismay concerning their decision to remove all of the pics without giving you a chance to comply with their request. Or at least maybe they could temporarily reinstate the account long enough for people to obtain the screen shots that they want to archive. I for one am going to write to flickr, to request at least a temporary access to the group pics again.

I'm so sorry this has happened to you, for the love of etsy and everyone on front page. All your work down the toilet. This really sucks. ((It's a shame that flickr never got back to you with the answers and deleted the info. instead.

I was on front page twice in this time period and I thank you so much for taking time out of your day to have done this for us. Perhaps there is another way.

Thank you for all the kind words and support. It means a lot to me.I don't know if petitioning would help (since their customer support is lacking) but there were over 1,400 members of the group, so who knows?

I agree, even if they want to terminate the group, if they would put everything back for a month, so everyone could save what they wanted, that would be fine by me. So sad. :o(

You'll have to let me know what they tell you Cyd, hopefully it's not another canned message.

Wow, how sad! I loved your group and it was my # 1 resource for Front Page shots. I only realized it was gone because I just went to it. you guys were always so up to date! Thank you for all the work you all put into it, and I'll think good thoughts about a nice resolution on flickr's part (stinkers)

Holy crap! After all the work you put into it!!!It was my 'go to' page whenever I heard I'd been on the FP. I loved it, it was so informative, just the facts no 'links' that flickr claim were there.I'm so sad it's gone. R.I.P.

It has come to my attention that a Flickr group that I was a member of was deleted for violating the terms of service. After being notified by you, vaguely, that she was voilating the TOS and asking you twice to clarify (as NOTHING in her group was in violation), you deleted her group and 13,000 images without response that would help her "comply" and save her group from being deleted.

I enjoyed that group and I think what you did was absolutely poor customer service and I am contemplating deleting my account here and I most likely will not be renewing despite having faithfully renewed several times through out the past couple years. There is no excuse for you not to answer the questions of a customer nor for you not to investigate complaints before deleting away on a whim. I am very dissapointed to have lost such a wonderful group which was one of the sole reasons of me being here on flickr. I am writing to give you customer feedback but seeing as you don't seem to care about your customers I'm not sure how much good it will do.